Galapagos Discovers Novel Candidate Drug to Treat Breast Cancer
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Galapagos NV has announced that it has developed GLPG1790, a novel candidate drug to treat breast cancer.
GLPG1790 has shown high activity against breast tumors that are triple-negative, for which the absence of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) or HER2 receptors affects the prognosis for recovery, and no targeted therapeutic options are currently available.
Breast cancer is a disease in which tumor cells form in the breast tissue; it is one of the most common types of cancer in women. There are many different types of breast cancer, and as a result, there are many options for treatment.
Targeted drug treatments such as Herceptin® and Avastin® attack specific types of breast cancer cells.
Decisions about the best possible treatment with targeted drugs are based on tests for the presence of ER, PR and HER2. Triple-negative breast cancer (tumor cells that have no ER, PR and HER2) accounts for one-fifth of breast cancers, and it usually affects young women. There are no targeted drugs available for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.
Candidate drug GLPG1790 is a selective and potent inhibitor of a novel breast cancer target; the candidate drug has proven to be highly active against triple-negative breast cancer in a mouse xenograft model where it completely blocks tumor growth.
GLPG1790 has good drug-like properties, and safety/tolerability studies with the candidate drug look favorable.
Galapagos will initiate preclinical studies with GLPG1790, and expects to initiate the first clinical trials in humans within one year. This novel program is fully proprietary to Galapagos.
"GLPG1790 is the result of a multi-year research program on a novel mechanism of action discovered with our target discovery platform," says Dr Piet Wigerinck, Galapagos CSO.
Dr Wigerinck continued, "We are pleased to have developed a targeted approach towards triple-negative breast cancer. Targeted approaches in oncology typically show good efficacy and less toxicity than chemotherapy."
